Saturday, January 30, 2010

Be on the lookout for the following brands! Many of their products contain palm oil. Just be sure to check the label and look for "palm oil", "palm kernel oil", "palm fruit oil" or "palmitate". Then you’ll know they contain rainforest destruction!

Still going strong? There are plenty more where that came from. Here is every company that you found selling products that contain palm oil. Once you're out of stickers, why not send them a letter asking them to stop?

General Mills uses palm oil from plantations that destroy huge tracts of rainforests in Indonesia, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea.

Palm oil is a common ingredient in General Mills brands and products, from Betty Crocker and Pillsbury to Nature Valley Granola Bars and Yogurt Burst Cheerios.

In the last five years, demand for palm oil by U.S. companies like General Mills has tripled, resulting in the clearing and burning of rainforests for palm oil plantations.

This has put Indigenous and forest-dependent people in jeopardy, as well as endangered species like orangutans, Sumatran tigers and elephants.

General Mills must commit to sourcing only socially and environmentally responsible palm oil. Send a letter to the CEO of General Mills, Mr. Kendall Powell and let him know you don't want rainforest destruction in the General Mills products you buy!

Friday, January 29, 2010

Update! On January 26, 2010, Glynn Johnson, a former L.A. County assistant fire chief, was found guilty of felony animal cruelty after he used a 12-pound rock to beat Karley, a mixed breed shepherd puppy, outside his Riverside, California home last year.

Karley’s injuries from the vicious attack were so severe that she had to be euthanized. Johnson is scheduled to be sentenced on March 8 and could serve up to four years in state prison.Why would a grown man, a leader in his community, purportedly beat a puppy so viciously that the dog would have to be euthanized?

The Toole family has been asking this question since November 2008, when a neighbor repeatedly punched their six-month-old puppy, Karley, and struck her in the head with a large rock, shattering her skull. Authorities have charged Karley’s alleged attacker, Glynn Johnson, with felony animal cruelty for an assaultwitnesses say was unprovoked. They testified in a pre-trial hearing that after the puppy had run across his yard, Johnson, an assistant fire chief with Los Angeles County, discovered neighbor Travis Staggs taking Karley to the Toole’s home on the other side of his own property in an unincorporated area of Riverside, Calif.

The defendant offered to walk Karley back to the Tooles himself, so Staggs turned the German shepherd mix over to him. “Then something in his head snapped and he started beating the dog,” Staggs told the court. He said that Johnson punched Karley with a closed fist about a dozen times and then beat her with an 11-inch rock, adding that he tried to stop the attack, but Johnson pushed him away. Staggs said Johnson finally stopped hitting Karley after her body went limp; she then managed to stumble to a nearby ravine.

The Toole’s teenage children, Brandon and Heather, rushed Karley to a veterinarian and later an animal intensive care unit, but her injuries were too extensive.

In addition to her skull being cracked in three places, Karley lost an eye and suffered a broken jaw, crushed nasal cavity and a collapsed ear canal. “I’ve never seen a dog come in with that level of head injury,” says Angela Howard, DVM, one of the veterinarians who treated Karley. “I’ve seen pets who have been hit by cars and they were thrown by the car and suffered fractures to the nose or skull, but I’ve never seen a case where their head was that badly damaged.”

KARLEY'S LAW

Toole says she was shocked to discover that the law considers animals to be property. “Animals are not chairs or tables,” she says. “They are living, breathing beings with feelings, and they are part of a family. Sadly, there is no civil law for the victims of animal cruelty in California.” She and her family are dedicated to changing that, not only to honor Karley’s memory, but to aid future victims of abuse.

Stephan Otto, ALDF’s legislative director, worked with the Tooles to draft “Karley’s Law,” a Civil Right of Action for Cruelty to an Animal, which will give parties whose animals are subjected to acts of cruelty the opportunity to bring a civil action against the perpetrator for the full range of their loss. The law won’t change an animal’s legal status as property, but if a plaintiff prevails, it will give courts the authority to order a judgment for all actual and reasonable damages proved, such as the monetary value of the animal, veterinary expenses, emotional distress, loss of companionship, court costs and attorney’s fees.

Karley’s Law will also provide punitive damages of at least $1,000 for every intentional act to which the animal was subjected, as well as give courts the authority to issue restraining orders and other injunctive relief as they deem warranted.

“As it stands now,” says Otto, “collecting an animal’s market value ― what it would cost to replace him or her — is generally all that’s available to plaintiffs in the state, so Karley’s Law would be a real step forward. It doesn’t guarantee any damages, but it will allow animal guardians their day in court to argue for the full extent of their loss.”...

Life on planet Earth is at a crossroads, with multiple environmental crises bearing down upon us simultaneously: climate change, resource depletion, oil supply decline, ocean pollution, overpopulation, species extinction, and more. The Great Squeeze inventories and connects all of them, showing how short-sighted human behavior and decisions have resulted in a situation that threatens our lives and planet.

The film travels back in time to take us on a journey through history when past civilizations made the same mistakes -- growing too fast, depleting their natural resources and ultimately collapsing. The Anasazi society, the Mayan civilization and the Easter Island culture all provide graphic examples of peoples violating principles of sustainability and exceeding the carrying capacity of their environment. The veil of mystery surrounding the disappearance of these once-thriving cultures is peeled back to offer insights into our own modern social order seemingly bent on a similar path of self-destruction.

Instead of the usual band-aid approaches, The Great Squeeze challenges us to learn from history and transition towards a more sustainable economy that values our environment. By changing our levels of consumption, deploying new technologies, and reordering social priorities, we can still live well.

Renowned scientists, thinkers and authors, including Richard Heinberg, Edward O. Wilson, Lester Brown, Alexandra Cousteau, Jim White, Howard Kunstler and others, provide perspective and insights on our current state of affairs and how we can change course.

The Great Squeeze was selected for screening in Copenhagen during the UN Climate Change Conference, and at 14 film festivals around the world, where it won several awards, including Best Feature, Colorado Environmental Film Festival.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

(more info) (less info) Want to Subscribe?Sign In or Sign Up now! One of 98 pangolins rescued by Malaysias Wildlife and National Parks Department following a raid on a house in Alor Setar in the northern state of Kedah, Peninsular Malaysia in August 2009. The a... One of 98 pangolins rescued by Malaysias Wildlife and National Parks Department following a raid on a house in Alor Setar in the northern state of Kedah, Peninsular Malaysia in August 2009.

The animals were later released into a protected area. It is believed they were destined for export.

One man was arrested in connection with the case. If found guilty on all counts he has been charged with, he faces a maximum of 23 years in jail.

Monday, January 25, 2010

An investigation commissioned by Unilever, the world's largest buyer of palm oil, confirms that Indonesian group Sinar Mas, the world's second largest producer of palm oil, has been destroying forests and peatlands despite committing to "greener" palm oil production as a member of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).

Unilever has now suspended its $32.6 million contract with Sinar Mas.

The findings of the investigation are a setback to RSPO, which has developed 'criteria' to ensure that palm oil production is less damaging to the environment.

"What we're seeing here is the world's larger buyer of palm oil using its financial muscle to sanction suppliers who are destroying rain forests and clearing peatlands," said Greenpeace director John Sauven in a statement.

"This has set a new standard for others to follow.

Companies that wish to be seen as environmentally responsible must immediately stop sourcing products from the Sinar Mas group."

The orangutan and its habitat are seriously at risk due to palm oil production - an ingredient in 10% of our supermarket products. As consumers, we cannot make informed and ethical choices on purchases as palm oil is not properly labeled.

Please sign this petition to ask the EU parliament to lead by example and to start to take some action. It is time to to action NOW - before it is too late. Please share this petition with your friends, family and colleagues and on your social networking sites.

A proposal for further forest clearing and destruction of over 33,600 ha of rainforest has recently been put forward by a joint venture company, Asia Pulp & Paper/Sinar Mas Group.

The Bukit Tigapuluh (“Thirty Hills”) ecosystem is located in Central Sumatra, Indonesia. This globally important ecosystem provides a safe haven for many species which are threatened by extinction or are extremely rare - including the critically endangered Sumatran orang-utan, tiger and elephant.

Lonesome George

Every now and then George closes his eyes for a few centuries the stars stop for the occasion and the sun goes out, his night lit only by dream...

"Hello, big boy," she says, shell new and lustrous, green as the deep sea; and her eyes deep as the dark gems that glow deep where it roots...

George, lifting his nose skyward still seeing her behind his closed eyes moves forwardslow as lava oozing from the bottom of the sea

His scaled feet arch like trees first planted then pulled up from their roots...

"I'm coming," he says.

Written by, Steve Campbell

"Lonesome George" is the name given by biologists to the last surviving male Giant Galapagos Tortoise. There are no surviving females.

The entire Giant Galapagos Tortoise species was destroyed directly by humans. The tortoise's shells were used to make tourist trinkets. The shell is part of the tortoise's body (like turtles). Without their shell, they die much like a human having their skin removed (I imagine, equally as painful).

The animal was usually still alive when it's 'soft' body was cruelly cut out from it's shell. In countries like China, and the Island of Bali, this brutal and unethical practice of live tortoise/turtle slaughter continues.

George is approximately 90 years old. In 2008, great efforts were made to help George produce offspring by fertilizing eggs of a 'close' relative species. Sadly, the experiment failed.

George is the rarest known creature in the world and... the loneliest.